Swing through South America;

Page 1

A
SWING
THROUGH
SOUTH
AMERICA
By
Malcolm M. Devore
with
photography by
the author
One of the more interesting assignments I have had
since coming to the Executive Office in 1961 has been
our General Motors engagement. The size and scope
of operations of this client literally staggers the imagi­nation:
for the last several years it has produced and
sold as many automobiles and trucks as all other U.S.
manufacturers combined; its net income for 1964, $1.7
billion, is an all-time record for any U.S. corporation.
One of the personal rewards to me has been the op­portunity
of working with a number of the top manage­ment
people in General Motors; men of obvious com­petence
and, as I have found out, of equally high per­sonal
qualities. It is a privilege to count them among
my friends.
My professional role in the General Motors engage­ment
is that of over-all supervision. In this I am assisted
by a partner resident in Detroit and a second partner
resident in New York; Detroit and New York are, as
you might suspect, the two principal locations with
which we are concerned, although many of our domes­tic
and foreign offices participate in their own areas.
The engagement offers an exhilarating professional
challenge, and this is not in the least diminished by its
pleasant aspects—such as the annual visits I make to
8
General Motors overseas. Picture travel ads for England,
Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, France,
Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, and you can
see what I mean. That was where I went in 1963. In
1964 I visited Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina,
Chile, and Peru.
More properly I should say "we visited," as my wife
joined me. Needless to say, this has made the trips more
pleasant for me and I know she has enjoyed them also.
This is probably an appropriate time to warn my
readers that if any one of them in the years ahead should
be in the same position I am now in, and should then
visit the overseas locations of General Motors, he should
be prepared to have his associates describe his hard­working
travels as "junkets."
For myself, I am content to make my defense (though
I fiercely contend none is necessary) by pointing out
that in the first thirty-three working days of our 1963
trip I visited thirty individual locations of General
Motors Corporation, International Harvester Corpora­tion
(another valued client of our Firm), and of offices
of Deloitte, Plender, Haskins & Sells and other firms
associated with us, reviewed working papers on the
prior year's engagements, conferred with client officials